Hamilton’s west harbour vision now includes film studios

A film studio is the latest vision for a long-vacant property near Hamilton’s west harbour.

City staff have been asked to report back to the new Hamilton city council next year on the possibility of “creative industry” uses on the Barton-Tiffany lands.

Those lands were purchased several years ago by the city as a football stadium location, an idea which later fell through.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger says the city has met with interested parties who are looking at “not a minor studio but a significant one.” He adds that it has the potential to employ “thousands of people, not hundreds of people.”

Eisenberger acknowledges that the city may run into “community and zoning challenges.”

Staff have been directed to undertake a community consultation as part of the review and will present the outcome to Hamilton’s planning committee in the first quarter of 2019.

City council bought and demolished 19 homes and businesses along Barton Street West, near the CN shunting yard in 2010, for a planned stadium that ended up being built in the east end and is now called Tim Hortons Field.